The Columbus Clippers were on national television Thursday night, but the best story on the farm came from Ryan Merritt. The left-hander continued to impress in 2014 as he dominated in a unique way given the trends of today's game. In addition to Merritt, Lake County starter Dace Kime furthered his case that his early struggles are behind him, the Columbus bullpen essentially had open tryouts for the majors, Anthony Santander got two-thirds of Lake County's hits (not in a good way), and much more. Join Jim Piascik as he breaks it all down and takes you Around the Farm.

The Akron RubberDucks opened the top of the eighth with a pair of runs to cut the Altoona Curve’s lead to one, but the Curve ended the frame by posting three runs of its own on a Willy Garcia three-run home run to win 7-3 at People’s Natural Gas Field on Thursday.

Things were not as crazy down on the farm Wednesday as they were at Progressive Field, but there were still plenty of interesting things goings on. Headlining the night was outfielder -- which is still a little weird to write -- Dorssys Paulino, who has returned to Lake County swinging well. He was joined by Tyler Naquin continuing his hot streak, Clayton Cook's first game in 25 months, and much more. Join Jim Piascik as he breaks it all down and takes you Around the Farm.

The Akron RubberDucks found themselves down one after the fifth inning, but scored six runs in the final four frames to secure a 6-2 win agains the Altoona Curve, Wednesday. Tyler Naquin finished the day with four RBIs – including a three-run home run in the ninth inning to seal the victory. Starting pitcher Joseph Colon finished five innings with five hits and one run while striking out seven Altoona batters.

Akron right fielder Jordan Smith had the RubberDucks only extra-base hit when he doubled in the top of the fifth inning. This would prove to be vital, as a Tyler Naquin RBI single followed one batter later, and was the difference in Akron’s 1-0 victory in Altoona. The win evened the series at a game apiece with two more left to be played.

In today's Coach's Corner, Jim Piascik sat down with Double-A Akron manager Dave Wallace and talked about the RubberDucks' progress through roughly 40 games. They focused on the hitting side of the equation, talking about the continued improvement of Francisco Lindor and his readiness for the major leagues, what changes Giovanny Urshela made to key his hot start to the season, the development of Tyler Naquin, and much more.

The RubberDucks won two series, sweeping the Harrisburg Senators at home and taking two out of three from the Erie SeaWolves on the road before dropping Monday evening’s contest in Altoona. The IBI's Spencer Davies recaps the week that was for the RubberDucks in his new weekly notebook and updates us all on how many of the players are doing, all the latest transactions news, and more.

The Akron RubberDucks lost to the Altoona Curve, 4-3, Monday after finding themselves down 2-0 in the first. Akron scored twice in the fifth and once in the seventh to take the lead, but Altoona came back with a two-run eighth inning. Starter Gabriel Arias pitched 5.2 innings with eight hits and two runs on five strikeouts. Alex Lavisky finished two for three with a walk and a run scored.

The IBI Hot List showcases the Top 15 performances from the previous seven days as well as the Bottom 5 performances over the past seven days, and includes insight, information and more on each player listed. Today’s listing includes 20 players and over 2500 words, and highlights players such as Jordan Milbrath, Giovanny Urshela, Todd Hankins, Robbie Aviles, Eric Haase, Cody Anderson and many others.

Designated hitter Tyler Holt rose to the occasion in the top of the ninth inning, and hit what turned out to be the game-winning two-out RBI single off of Slade Smith (0-1, 9.53) to center field that brought in Bryson Myles. New arrival J.C. Ramirez (1-0, 0.00) followed with a 1-2-3 ninth inning, which secured the Akron RubberDucks 2-1 victory over the Erie SeaWolves (18-22).

The WAR Room is back again, bringing you the 2014 advanced stats for every Cleveland minor leaguer. After looking at the hitters last week, today we focus on the pitchers. It is still early enough that there is some noise in the numbers, but at this point in the season, we are starting to see some interesting trends emerge. Join Jim Piascik as he breaks it all down, including Adam Plutko's dominance of the Midwest League, a look at some straggling RubberDucks, and much more.

Erie SeaWolves lefty Kyle Ryan tossed shutout baseball for nearly seven innings, and Jason Krizan had a pair of hits and an RBI to lead Erie to a 2-1 victory over the Akron RubberDucks Saturday night at Jerry Uht Park. The loss snapped Akron’s four-game winning streak and set the stage for the rubber-match of the three-game series on Sunday afternoon at 1:35. The RubberDucks (27-14) maintained their five-game lead in the EL West, as second-place Bowie lost at Reading. Despite the loss, Akron is still one of the hottest teams in the minor leagues, having won 17 of the last 20 games.

An All-Star in 2012, Bryan LaHair should be in Columbus as he works his way back toward the major leagues. Circumstances have him playing in Akron, however, which was a good thing for the RubberDucks Friday night. The first baseman led the RubberDucks to a win in extra innings in addition to headlining the night on the farm. Join Arthur Kinney as he analyzes LaHair's night and much more as he takes you Around the Farm.

In this week’s edition of Minor Happenings, the IBI's Tony Lastoria takes a look at the impressive showing this month from Low-A Lake County infielder Paul Hendrix and provides some insight and information as to what kind of prospect he is, where his strengths lie, and whether he can keep up his torrid play. He also takes a look at Low-A Lake County right-handed pitcher Adam Plutko who is having an exceptional pro debut, provides a ton of injury updates with some news of some prospects who could be on the move today, and a lot of information on players such as Justin Sellers, Tyler Sturdevant, Torsten Boss, Eric Haase and others!

No matter how often we see that April stats have little predictive use for the rest of the season, it is hard not to react to someone's extreme highs or lows out of the gate. Following about as bad of an April as you can see, it was easy to pile on Ronny Rodriguez. But Rodriguez's recent hot stretch is yet another reason why we cannot make any profound judgment on April stats. Join Jim Piascik as he writes about Rodriguez's powerful day, Tyler Naquin hitting the ball hard, and much more as he takes you Around the Farm.

The Akron RubberDucks out hit the Harrisburg Senators 11 to seven on their way to taking the win, 4-2, Wednesday. Akron's offense was paced by two-hit games from Tyler Naquin, Joe Wendle and Jordan Smith. RubberDucks started Gabriel Arias picked up his fifth win of the season after pitching seven innings of seven-hit, two-run ball. Tyler Sturdevant got the save with two no-hit innings of work.

Before Tuesday's game, the RubberDucks and Senators resumed play from Monday's game in the bottom of the seventh inning knotted up 3-3. Propelled by Ronny Rodriguez’s first-career grand slam, Akron scored seven-runs in the seventh to beat Harrisburg, 10-3. Righty Enosil Tejeda (2-0, 2.03) got the win, and newly promoted Rafael Martin (0-1, 81.00) was handed his first loss of the season.

The IBI Hot List showcases the Top 15 performances from the previous seven days as well as the Bottom 5 performances over the past seven days, and includes insight, information and more on each player listed. Today’s listing includes 20 players and over 2500 words, and highlights players such as Adam Plutko, Paul Hendrix, Anthony Gallas, Joe Wendle, Cody Anderson, Torsten Boss, Jeremy Lucas and many others.

For the first time this season, The WAR Room is bringing you the 2014 advanced stats for every Cleveland minor leaguer. Now that we have about five weeks of the season in the books, the numbers are starting to look like something we can use. This week Jim Piascik takes a look at the hitters throughout the system, including Francisco Lindor's torrid start with the RubberDucks, Jesus Aguilar's powerful surge in Columbus, and much more.

Available IBI Books

The 2014 Cleveland Indians Baseball Insider book featuring the Indians' Top 100 Prospects and more is now available. Also, previous editions from 2008-2012 are also available at a discounted rate. Just click on the book image for more information. Thanks again for all the support!